Director of Center for Polymers and Organic Solids, Distinguished Professor
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9510
Office: 3122 Chemistry
Phone: (805) 893-4851
Contact: quyen@chem.ucsb.edu
Education
2001 Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry,University of California, Los Angeles
Thesis: Controlling Interchain Interactions in Conjugated Polymers: the Studies of Physical and Electronic Properties of PPV-Derivatives for Plastic Optoelectronic Devices
Advisor: Prof. Benjamin J. Schwartz
1998 M.S. in Physical Chemistry,University of California, Los Angeles
1997 B.S. in Chemistry (Cum Laude),University of California, Los Angeles
1995 A.S.,Santa Monica College
Appointment
2025 - present Essam Khashoggi Chair in Materials Chemistry Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCSB
2018 - present Director, Center for Polymers and Organic Solids, UCSB. https://www.cpos.ucsb.edu/members
2011 - 2025 Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCSB
2009 - 2011 Associate Professor, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCSB
2004 - 2009 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCSB
2001 - 2004 Research Associate, Chemistry Department and Nano-center, Columbia University Research Interests: Organic semiconducting materials for molecular electronics and optoelectronic devices; Self-assembly.
Advisors: Prof. Louis E. Brus (2023 Chemistry Nobel Laureate) and Prof. Colin Nuckolls
Honors and Awards
2026 Faculty Research Lecturer Award, the highest honor the Academic Senate bestows upon a UC Santa Barbara faculty member
2026 Traugott and Dorothea Frederking Lecture at UCLA
2025 ACS Henry H. Storch Award in Energy Chemistry
2025 French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) Ambassador in Chemical Sciences
2025 Suffrage Science Awards
2024 Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (EurASc)
2023 Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors
2023 De Gennes Prize for Materials Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry)
2023 Elected to the US National Academy of Engineering
2023 Wilhelm Exner Medal
2021 Visiting Professor, CY Cergy Paris Université
2021, 2022 Women in Materials Science by Advanced Materials
2020, 2021 The Stanford University's list of the World Top 2% Highly Cited Scientists
2020 UCSB Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor Award
2019 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
2019 The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds; Top 1% Highly Cited Researchers in Cross-Field by Clarivate Analytics
2019 Hall of Fame, Advanced Materials
2019 Beaufort Visiting Scholar, St John’s College, Cambridge University
2019 Visiting Professor, Linkoping University, Sweden
2018 The World's Most Influential Minds; Top 1% Highly Cited Researchers in Materials Science by Clarivate Analytics
2017 The World's Most Influential Minds; Top 1% Highly Cited Researchers in Materials Science by Clarivate Analytics
2016 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
2016 The World's Most Influential Minds; Top 1% Highly Cited Researchers in Materials Science by Thomson Reuters
2015 The World's Most Influential Minds; Top 1% Highly Cited Researchers in Materials Science by Thomson Reuters
2015 Alexander von Humboldt Research Award for Senior Scientists
2015 Visiting Professor, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan
2014 Among 14 Scientists in the US selected by the National Academy of Science to participate in the Writer's Retreat, the Science & Entertainment Exchange
2014 - 2016 Visiting Professor, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia
2013 Visiting Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
2010 NSF American Competitiveness and Innovation (ACI) Fellows
2009 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow
2009 Keynote Speaker at the UCSB Women of Color in Academia
2008 Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award
2008 NSF Division of Materials Research, Distinguish Lecture
2007 Harold J. Plous Memorial Award and Lectureship, one of the UCSB's two most prestigious faculty honors.
2006 NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award
2006 Academic Outreach to the Community Recognition honored by the UCSB and Santa Barbara Count
2005 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award
2001 National Research Council Award
2001 Dissertation Award for Outstanding Performance in Research in Physical Chemistry, University of California, Los Angeles
2000 UC Regents Dissertation Award, UCLA
2000 Graduate Student Award, MRS Fall 2000 Meeting
2000 Outstanding Innovative Research Award of the Advanced Materials at the International Conference on Synthetic Metals
1998 George Gregory Research Fellowship, UCLA
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES (Advisory Boards, Editors, Panelists, Committees, etc.)
2026 Steering Committee for the Center for Research and Innovation on Smart and Quantum Materials (CRISQuaM), Brazil
2026 Co-Guest Editor for a Special Issue “Women in Bioelectronics” of Advanced Materials
2026 Co-Chair, Gordon Research Conference on “Electronic Processes in Organic Materials” 2025 Scientific Evaluator for Helmholtz Association of
German Research Centres
2025 – Present Women National Academy of Engineering (WNAE) Section Liaison
2025 Panelist, Workshop on “Experience in planning, investing, developing science and technology organizations of the US and Vietnam,” organized
by the Vietnam Ministry of Science and Technology
2025 – Present Advisory Board Member of EES Solar (Royal Society of Chemistry)
2025 Scientific Evaluator of the Forschungszentrum Julich for Helmholtz Energy
2024 – Present Chair of the Pre-screening Committee, VinFuture Prize (https://vinfutureprize.org/)
2024 – Present Co-Chair, Conference on Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE)
2024 – Present Member, Section 9 Peer Committee, United States National Academy of Engineering
2024 Chair of the Pre-screening Committee, VinFuture Prize (https://vinfutureprize.org/)
2024 Co-Vice Chair, Gordon Research Conference on “Electronic Processes in Organic Materials”
2024 Co-Guest Editor for a Special Issue “Women in emerging organic and hybrid electronic
materials and interface” of Advanced Electronic Materials
2023 Editorial Advisory Board member for APL Energy (American Institute of Physics)
2023 – Present Chair, Organic Photonics + Electronics, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
2023 – 2024 Panelist for Advanced Grants, European Research Council
2023 – 2026 Scientific Advisory Board for SOLEN Elite Center, Denmark
2023 Co-Guest Editor for a Special Issue “Women in Renewable Energy” of Advanced Functional Materials
2022 – Present Advisory Board Member of Energy Advances (Royal Society of Chemistry)
2022 Co-Chair, Gordon Research Conference on “Hybrid Electronic and Photonic Materials and Phenomena”
2022 Advisory Board Member of Cell Reports Physical Science (Cell Press)
2021 – Present Co-Chair, Conference on Organic, Hybrid, and Perovskite Photovoltaics (OHPV), Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
2021 Faculty Moderator for the ACS Bridge Program “Postdoc to Faculty” Workshop
2021 – Present Co-Chair, Pre-screening Committee of the VinFuture Prize
2020 – Present International Advisory Board Member for the European Conference on Molecular Electronics (ECME)
2020 – Present International Advisory Board Member of Advanced Materials (Wiley-vch)
2020 – Present Molecular Foundry’s Scientific Advisory Board at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
2020 – Present Advisory Board Member of Materials Advances (Royal Society of Chemistry)
2020 Member of Ta Quang Buu Prize Committee
2020 – Present Advisory Board Member of Journal of Materials Chemistry C (Royal Society of Chemistry)
2020 – Present Advisory Board Member of Chemical Physics Reviews (American Institute of Physics, AIP)
2019 – Present External Advisory Board Member of the VinUniversity
2019 Member of Ton Duc Thang University Prizes Committee
2019 – Present Advisory Board Member of Mater (Elsevier)
2019 – Present Advisory Board Member of Material Chemistry Frontiers (Royal Society of Chemistry)
2019 Member of the Wiley Young Researcher Award Committee
2018 – 2021 Member of the ACS National Award Selection Committee
2018 – Present External Advisory Board Member of the California State University Northridge Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (CSUN-
PREM)
2018 - 2019 Member of Advisory Committee for the Institute for Terahertz Science and Technology, UCSB
2018 - Present Editorial Advisory Board of Advanced Functional Materials
2016 - Present Advisory Board of the Institute of Advanced Materials and Universitat Jaume, Spain
2016 - Present Editorial Advisory board of ACS Energy Letters
2016 - Present Advisory Editorial Board of Journal of Advanced Materials and Devices
2015 - Present Editorial Board of ChemPlusChem
2014 - Present International Advisory Board for the Electroluminescence and Organic Optoelectronics Conference
2013 - Present Scientific Editor of Materials Horizons (Royal Society of Chemistry)
2013 - Present Editorial Board of Materials Horizons (Royal Society of Chemistry)
2013 - Present International Advisory Board for the International Conference on Synthetic Metals (ICSM)
2012 - 2015 Editorial Board of Advances in Natural Sciences: Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
2010 - 2013 Advisory Board Member for Polymer Chemistry
2010 - Present International Advisory Board for the Functional pi-Electron Systems Conference
2006 - Present International Advisory Committee for the International Workshop on Functional Materials and the Advanced Materials Science and the
Nanotechnology